Flash drawing of a crossed bow and arrows with a crescent moon and hanging striped purple feathers, shaded in grey pencil with watercolour accents.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Crossed bow, arrows and feathers design

Mixed · Flash

The drawing shows a bow with its string crossing two arrows, one fletched with dark grey feathers at each end. A crescent moon sits above the crossing, and three striped feathers in purple, pink and white hang from the centre. The bow and arrows are rendered in fine grey linework with soft shading, while the moon and feathers carry watercolour colour.

Bow Arrow Crescent moon Feather Crossed arrows String

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomas, the moon was a thin paring over the weir last night, the same curve as the horn tips you left on my bench before you went north. I sat out with a cup of tea until it went cold, then counted the days on the back of the feed bill. Mother has stopped asking when you will be home. That means she has started counting too.

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Your bow is still hanging above the door, and I have not strung it. Each morning I take the twine down, rub beeswax along its length the way you showed me, and hang it back up, because you always said a bow needs a season to settle before it will shoot true. The arrows are in the crock by the hearth. Three of them carry the grouse feathers you traded from the gamekeeper's boy, banded grey and cream. When I dipped them in the dye pot to match the sunset you liked, they came out violet and rose. I could not bring myself to throw them out.

Mr Ferrier came on Tuesday asking whether the bowyer's shop was still ours. He wanted a pair of arrows for his nephew, dark grey fletching, nothing fancy. I told him the shop was shut until spring. He looked at the bench, saw the crescent of horn sitting by the vice, and asked what it was for. I said I did not know yet. That was the truth, and it surprised me more than it surprised him.

So I have decided. I will string the bow on the first hard frost, and I will shoot one of your striped arrows at the willow across the water. If it flies true, you will have to come home and explain why you left me the work. If it does not, I will still have the feathers, and the moon will still be there, thin and patient, over the weir.